Read the following case and answer the four questions below.
It all started out well. I had been steadily increasing my client base for six months at the investment firm where I work as an analyst. Ron Sanders, the division manager, had recently asked me to handle a dozen accounts of long-established clients previously handled by a retired analyst. I had made a point to meet with all the owners of the transferred accounts to gain perspective on their portfolios.
I remember sitting with Mrs. Crenshaw, a wealthy widow in her late 60s. We discussed her past investments and possible changes for the future. She had the notion that 60 is old, and she didn't believe she had enough money to last her through her final years. Mrs. Crenshaw stated that she wanted to be more conservative in her investments, no longer willing to risk as much principal. After listening to her family stories and concerns for what I had thought was an acceptable length of time (to me it seemed interminable!), I finally said, "Sixty is young, you have plenty of years ahead of you, and the amount of savings you have is more than sufficient to allow us to combine higher risk investments with some of your more conservative investments." I continued to show her the opportunities she had for making high returns by redistributing her investments. She signed the papers for the new investment instruments and thanked me for my time.
Everything was set. That is why I was so surprised when Ron Sanders informed me that he had just come from a meeting with Mrs. Crenshaw's eldest son and I needed to complete paperwork to delay all changes to her account. I also needed to transfer all of Mrs. Crenshaw's files to Sharon Foster, a senior analyst at the firm. How could I have screwed this up? What was I thinking when I convinced her to make the changes? How could I have missed her discomfort with the changes? All of a sudden I realized I hadn't heard a thing she had been saying-not really heard, anyway.
1. Where did the analyst go wrong?
2. Why did the analyst have a difficult time reading Mrs. Crenshaw?
3. What verbal and nonverbal clues did the analyst miss?
4. What should the analyst do to improve his listening skills with clients?